Scouts faced range of outdoor tests in February Klondike Derby

On Feb. 15-16, members of Troop 44 participated in the Klondike Derby at Ingawanis Adventure Base. The derby challenged scouts to pull a sled from campsite to campsite, where they completed activities such as pioneering, orienteering, archery, first aid, fire building and ecology. Scouts earned up to five “gold nuggets” based on their performance at each activity.

Preparation for the event began on Feb. 2, when the boys spent the afternoon building and tying their sleds together. Sophomore Johnathan Burton shared his thoughts on the experience.

“We used a variety of knots to make the sled work. It was a great experience for the younger scouts to learn and advance through the ranks,” Burton said.

Upon arrival at Ingawanis, the scouts set up camp and double-checked their resources, which included seven cans of soup, three 6-foot poles, fire starters and a pot. After a good night’s sleep in a cabin, they checked in and the event began. However, the troop encountered some challenges early on.

“Our sled leader, Aidan, turned the wrong way, which put us behind many other teams and caused a slow start,” sophomore Elijah Strei said.

After navigating down a hill, the troop arrived at their first activity: ecology trivia. Burton described the team’s performance.

“We didn’t do well. We answered three out of 11 questions correctly and only earned one gold nugget. It wasn’t a good start for us,” he said.

Next, they headed to fire building, where they were given a timed challenge.

“We had to boil a pot of water in under 10 minutes. For each extra minute, we lost a gold nugget. We ended up boiling it in about 11 minutes, losing one nugget,” freshman Aidan Neumen said.

The troop continued to orienteering, where they faced two challenges.

“We first had to make a tripod, which was pretty easy. Then we had to make a bear bag, which took some time because we had to keep taking breaks to warm up our hands,” Strei said.

They earned four nuggets for this activity.

At the archery station, the troop struggled more than at other stations.

“We ended up with one gold nugget because most of us couldn’t hit any targets, and that hurt our score,” Neumen said.

The next station was first aid, where the scouts achieved their highest score of the day.

“We got a five for the first time ever. First aid is usually where we struggle, but we did really well this year,” Burton said.

For lunch, the scouts were served Klondike stew, hot dogs and hot chocolate. The stew was a mix of all the soup that each troop had brought.

Finally, the troop went to the last orienteering activity, where they had to draw a map of the entire base from memory.

“We did OK. We earned three gold nuggets,” Strei said.

In the end, the troop left with valuable skills that will serve them in future events.